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HERE ARE SOME of the column inches the local press gave to the 2005 Leith Film Festival:_______________________________________ EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS - Mon 20th June 2005 Church-goers to see light at religious movie festival A FORMER cinema now used as a church is to stage the Capital's first religious film festival this summer. Destiny Church in Casselbank Street will host the inaugural week-long Leith Film Festival in August, showcasing films which promote Christian, moral or spiritual themes. The organisers believe they have found the ideal venue in the church, which was run as the Central Kinema from 1920 to about 1935, having been a Turkish baths before that. The building houses one the oldest plaster screens remaining in Europe. Among the films on the festival line up is Replay Revenge, a daring documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seen through the eyes of Basil Khalil, a director whose background gives him a unique perspective on the situation - he is an Israeli- Palestinian-English-Irish Christian who lives in Glasgow. Also on the bill is Christian, by director Stuart Hazeldine, a short film which imagines what would have happened if Jesus Christ had arrived on Earth as a teenage boy in a modern secondary school. One of the main events taking place during the week is an innovative competition for aspiring film-makers. Entitled 2.4.6.8, the participants will have 24 hours in which to write, produce and edit a short film of between six and eight minutes long. The film-makers can choose their own genre and subject matter, but all films must feature the same three elements provided by the festival's organisers - a prop, a well-known biblical quotation and a particular character. The festival is the brainchild of Destiny pastor Peter Anderson, who delved into the building's history and discovered its cinematic connections. Every day from August 7, daytime events will take the form of workshops for budding film- makers, with experts giving tips on screenwriting, editing and directing. Two or three films will be screened in the evenings, made by directors from all corners of the globe, each with a striking moral message. Kate West is co-ordinating the festival programme. She said: "We wanted to put on the kind of provocative, human films which really get people talking. And we also wanted to promote Leith as an area, since it is seeing so much in the way of regeneration at the moment." Ms West said all the films had been selected because they contain powerful messages about Christian values, such as hope, forgiveness, peace and freedom. "We want them to spark conversation, to be provocative. "There is nothing saccharine-sweet about them. This is more like Christianity with teeth." The festival has already gained sponsorship for the film contest from the Scottish Bible Society. The society's chief executive, the Rev Douglas Campbell, said: "We believe that the Bible deals with all of the great life subjects, as does the cinema." ON SCREEN • Films which will be shown Christian • Films which will not be shown The Omen _______________________________________[top] SUNDAY HERALD - Sun 7th August 2005 New film festival aims to offer sunshine on Leith A NEW Leith film festival has been founded to celebrate "positive images" of the world. The area brought to international fame by Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh's novel of deprivation and drug taking, is perhaps better known for its sailors' bars than its Christian churches. But the new festival, based at Destiny Church, aims to put people back in touch with their nobler sentiments. Some of the 17 films to be screened investigate issues including the Palestinian conflict, bullfighting, death row in America and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. However, they are organised around themes of love, peace, hope, sacrifice, forgiveness and justice. The organisers also want to encourage budding directors, with a film-making challenge called 2.4.6.8, in which teams have one day to create a six to eight-minute film including a certain line of dialogue, one prop and a character. All of the entries will be shown and judged on the final evening of the week-long festival, which runs from August 7 to 13. Fiona Lennon, festival director, said that the former Turkish baths and plaster cinema screen were a perfect location for a positive new Edinburgh festival. "We are going to talk about issues in a more positive light, " she said. "The films that were sent to us have really strong messages, and although they are not Christian films, they deal with Christian issues in a strong and contemporary manner." _______________________________________[top] FEST MAGAZINE - Wed 10th Aug 2005 Oh I do like to be beside the sea There's more than one film festival in town, you know. Rachel Boase packed her bucket and spade and trooped down to Leith to investigate. THIS WEEK sees the first Leith Film Festival, a celebration of cinema with a spiritual theme. Destiny Church in Leith has a unique asset. Although it now serves as a meeting place for Christian worship, this is only its latest incarnation. It started life as a Turkish bath-house. Then, as if deliberately following a 'cathedrals of the flesh' theme, it opened as a cinema. Miraculously, the ornate plaster screen survives. Fiona Lennon, the dynamic young director of the festival, describes how the event was born out of a conversation last August about how to make the most of the church's interior: "this being Edinburgh, holding a festival was the natural outcome." The idea of devoting the week-long festival to spiritual themes came from a need for some sort of focus. "We realised we couldn't compete with the International Film Festival," laughs Fiona. Instead, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge the modern-day purpose of the building. A call went out online for entries: the response was stupendous, with over fifty film-makers from around the world offering their efforts. Most films were shorts (some as short as five minutes) but twenty feature-length films were also submitted. Were there any common threads? “About fifty per cent had death in them," Fiona replies. She stresses, however, that the idea was to choose films on their artistic merit, not on how many references they could make to the Bible: "I like my film-making really subtle." What the festival promises is an eclectic mix of films in a beautiful, quirky setting – and all for free. On top of which, there is a film-making competition entitled 2-4-6-8 where amateur film-makers are encouraged to produce their own short films within the space of 24 hours. In the spirit of accessibility which characterises this mini-festival, workshops are running throughout the week to teach the skills required to make your own movie and enter it for the last night. _______________________________________[top] |
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